


Hunger

by Canadian_nights



Series: What if... [1]
Category: Cardinal (TV 2017)
Genre: Anticipation, Awkwardness, F/M, Fluff, Shameless Smut
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-11
Updated: 2020-11-12
Packaged: 2021-03-09 05:42:19
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,245
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27499612
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Canadian_nights/pseuds/Canadian_nights
Summary: What if they hadn't been interrupted in those oh so close moments when we all wanted to throw something at the TV ...A little collection of rambling alternatives to the onscreen situations from some of my favourite 'oh so agonisingly close to getting it together' cardilorme moments.Light-hearted drabbles that I hope you enjoy :D
Relationships: John Cardinal & Lise Delorme, John Cardinal/Lise Delorme
Series: What if... [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2009680
Comments: 7
Kudos: 10





	1. Hunger (part I)

**Author's Note:**

> Starting with the classic - if it wasn't for pesky josh.... What was Lise even thinking there?!?
> 
> So I know I am supposed to be finishing Mr and Mrs Cardinal (and I promise it is nearly done but I want it to be a satisfactory ending and at the minute that means too much angst for my sleep confused 'in between 2 runs of nightshifts' brain which just wants to live in a world of fluffy nonsense) hence this series that I will I suspect gradually add to.

Lise was feeling particularly irritated. They were getting nowhere with the case and she hated it. Unable to settle she had taken out her washing pile, ironing out her frustrations quite literally as she worked through her work shirts, the monotonous task taking the edge off of her racing thoughts. There was something else niggling at the back of her mind, something or rather someone that she was battling hard to try and keep suppressed but whose dark scruffy hair and boyish smile refused to stay put in the nice little box she had allocated him within the ‘complex and too difficult to process’ section of her thoughts. Just as she was about to finally relent and give in to a fantasy that her mind was conjuring up, involving her partner in a very unprofessional position, a loud knock at the door interrupted, startling her out of the reverie. 

“Hey!” John’s lips twitched up into an awkward smile as soon as she opened the door to him. 

“Hey” was all she could reply back, parroting his greeting whilst her brain floundered in its attempt to string words together coherently. Completely unable to disguise her shock and pleasure at his presence. 

“Want to go over it?” The higher pitched lilt of his voice giving away his nerves. “I’ve brought some…” his eyes glanced down as he gestured at the case files and bags of take out precariously balanced in his arms. He had brought far too much for two people, the food ultimately just an over-eager excuse, a poor attempt on his part to disguise the real reason he had sought his partner out and now found himself standing on her frozen doorstep much later than was professional. 

The look on his face was like a flash back to the expression she remembered on the face of her high school date, arriving at her door all those years ago to take her to prom – a ball of hormones and nervous excitement. Lise was very aware, all of a sudden, how fast her heart was pounding as she stared out at him whilst the cool night air flooded into her apartment. 

Stepping back to let him in she couldn’t stop her smile as his expression softened and his shoulders relaxed, as though a small part of him had genuinely anticipated that she might have rejected his offer. He was such a tall, broad shouldered man that her small frame was eclipsed on the landing. The way his gaze took in the full length of her body, full of unconcealed appreciation, drove a tingling surge of anticipation through her as she consciously regretted that she was wearing such baggy old clothes and no underwear! 

Something about watching his long legs climb the stairs to her apartment filled her with surprising butterflies. 

******

They ate what they felt like of the curry and then quickly settled into what they were good at. Lise’s table becoming a makeshift boardroom with the case files spread out in a mess of information whilst they fed hungrily off one another’s enthusiasm until their joint brain was awash with ideas. 

It drove Lise mad that John kept his personal feelings and desires locked out of her grasp but when they gelled so effortlessly together like this, like two cogs in a perfectly engineered machine, she almost didn’t care that this was the only part of him that she could have. She knew that this was the real John, so sharp and full of a dogged determination to make the world a better place, accepting nobly the self-sacrifice it took to give his all to his work. His unfaltering integrity made him the most attractive man she had ever known. Looking at him with a shy smile, slightly losing her chain of thought in the process, she conceded that his silvering beard and those bloody soul piercing hazel eyes also had something to do with how badly she wanted to be more than professional partners. 

They were so close now that the heat of his arm was palpable as her fingers played on the table, instinctively inching over towards his own. An unbridled enthusiasm danced between them, their faces lighting up as the pace of their chat accelerated whilst they urged each other on, feeding off the thrill of the chase until the reality of the situation seemed to catch up to John. The intimacy of being sat at Lise’s table, in her home, with her smiling eyes and her thin t-shirt- which left so little to his overly eager imagination, was making him feel suddenly shy and self-conscious. 

The change in him was very obvious to Lise as she watched the sparkle escape his eyes as his lips curled into a bashful boyish smile whilst his fingers slid off his reading glasses so that he could run his big hand awkwardly through his beard, covering his lips and actively hiding his true feelings behind a physical wall. 

Gahh she wanted him. This beautifully shy, awkward man. So powerful and strong one minute and yet now cowering behind his flimsy defences clearly terrified of what was so obviously happening between them, what had been evolving for months maybe years and was now impossible to ignore. 

Lise wasn’t naïve, she wouldn’t go so far as to say she had ever been a maneater but she had enough experience with men who found her attractive to know what it felt like. She also had never been afraid to go for what she wanted in her professional and her private life. It just happened that what she wanted, what she really wanted, was finally within her reach. 

Holding his gaze to reassure them both she took a steadying breath. There was nowhere to hide, they were both stone cold sober and fully aware of what was happening between them. The next few moments would change their world's forever. Her heart, now pounding in her throat, seriously hoped that he was on the same page. 

Time slowed for John, his eyes locked on Lise as he watched her lean in towards him, the inevitability of what was about to happen thrilling him as much as it was terrifying. He could admit now that he had started to see his partner with new eyes in the months since Catherine's death. He wasn’t afraid to admit that he was always a bit attracted to her, he was a red-blooded man after all, but at some blurry point along the way she had become beautiful, so overwhelmingly so that his heart raced like a teenager when she got too close and his eager body had been moments from embarrassing him on more than one occasion. He was mortified at how often he would dream of his partner, naked and soft in his arms, panting her name as he awoke painfully hard and all alone. Sometimes his dreams felt so real that he could barely look at her at work the following morning, feeling like a creep and terrified that she would somehow know what his subconsious was thinking. 

But now.. now she was very real and leaning in to kiss him. Her warm breath damp against his lips as his blood surged in his ears and his vision blurred with lust. He felt like one of those old fashioned cartoon characters, seeing stars whilst his thudding heart burst comically from the confines of his chest.


	2. Hunger (part II)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Yes so this is pretty much the shameless smut that I promised. This time round Lise takes control of the situation and an anxious John is pretty happy about it in the end!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So being between nightshifts has left me in totally the wrong time zone for my friends/family so that means hours of darkness to entertain myself with writing what turns out to be a lot of smut and fluff - hopefully will be a chapter that makes up for the tease I left a few days ago! 
> 
> Hope you guys enjoy and it lightens up the end of the week - as with all my smut there is a lot of fluff and warm and fuzzies thrown in too. Happy 'almost the weekend' (for those not working)

The feeling of Lise’s soft lips tenderly meeting his own was possibly the most incredible sensation he had ever experienced. The anticipation he had of this moment and all of the fantasies that had guiltily played out in his mind paled shamefully in comparison.  
It took a while for John to adjust to what was happening, almost as though he was in a dream, his brain struggling to translate the overwhelming sensations his body was experiencing into intelligible thought. Just as he was steadying himself, his lips coming to life and responding to Lise’s now probing kisses, her palms moved to press against his chest gently encouraging him back from the table. Then she was hovering over him, her light frame coming down to rest in his lap as she straddled him. All the while her lips maintaining their attention on his own, gently probing with her slick tongue along the warm opening to his mouth until he could taste her. 

The heat of her thighs was permeating through his jeans as she shifted in his lap, pressing closer so that her core was awakening a part of him that had been dormant for a long time. The sensation of her feminine softness jolting his body to full attention. He needed to look at her, his eyelids flickering open as he gasped against her hot mouth, his lungs suddenly burning as he tried to steady the rhythm of his rapid breathing. God she was so beautiful. Her cheeks flushed and her eyes still closed, letting him study her without her knowledge, the look of pleasure in her delicate features causing his heart to beat even faster. 

“God Lise you are so beautiful” his voice was breathless and much shakier than he intended. 

He still wasn’t quite sure what to do with himself. It had been so long since he had been kissed like this and even longer since his body had felt the keen attentions of someone as young and beautiful as Lise. The recognition that Lise wanted him in this way, a woman who could have her pick of any man her age, was stoking his ego even if his guarded heart couldn’t quite yet come to terms with this reality. 

Lise could feel him trembling as his fingers settled against her hips, the emotion in his face and body confirming how much what they were doing meant to him. The knowledge that a part of him was still so terrified of what was happening, despite how much his body was clearly invested, made her heart go out to him. He wasn’t a man to mess around, he had been married all his life and never unfaithful to his wife throughout her illness and the difficulties in their marriage. Giving himself to her in this moment was huge for John and she knew that, she also knew that for her this was so much more than a crush or a passing fling to get out of her system. She loved John and she was totally prepared to show him, to let him in and help him open up to her. 

Shifting in his lap she smiled against his lips when she felt the probing arousal in his jeans, if she didn’t know already how much he wanted her then she certainly did now. 

“I want you John… all of you,” she breathed against his lips. “I’ve wanted you for so long. Let me show you how much.” 

Slowly she let her fingers slide down his chest, stopping to carefully unfasten each of the big buttons on his thick knitted jumper before sliding it free of his shoulders. The outline of his strong chest was apparent through the thin material of his t-shirt and she couldn’t resist pressing her palms against the hot, hard muscles that she had secretly admired through his work shirt for years. The feel of the rapid rise and fall of his breathing heightening her own need, as his heavy-lidded eyes gazed up at her, his pupils dilated and dark with desire. 

“I.. I.. Lise…” 

Nobody had ever looked at her the way he was looking at her right now, his eyes shimmering with emotion and piercing through to her soul. What he was struggling to tell her with words he made up for with that look and an overwhelming surge of love for this complicated but beautifully honest man surged inside her as she crashed her lips back against his. 

“Come to bed with me John.”

*****

There was a genuine sensation of loss as she untangled herself from his lap, standing slowly and carefully whilst never breaking his anxious gaze. He followed her without hesitation as she led him through her small apartment to her warm bedroom. The curtains were open so that the streetlights below and bright winter moon filled the room with a pale glow, illuminating her neatly made bed and reminding him suddenly of what was happening. Lise could see the flicker of apprehension flash across his expression as she pressed her warm body reassuringly against his now rigid frame, running hot kisses along the prickly hairs of his beard until she reached the soft skin of his ear.

“You mean so much to me John. I know how hard this is for you...to let me in after everything you have been through.” Her soft warm breath was lapping against his ear as she spoke softly but urgently against his skin. “This isn’t a one-time thing for me.” 

Hearing her say those words flicked a switch in his brain. The worry that he had been harbouring ever since he had felt her lips on his, even whilst his body was on fire, that he might lose the most important person in his life through their lust fuelled actions, had been washed away. He was still overwhelmingly nervous, it had been a long time, but Lise was in complete control – as she always was, and he would happily follow her into anything. 

“I want you too Lise, but I think you already know that.” His hands reaching out to ghost across her hips as he spoke, her heat palpable through the thin cotton of her pants as he pulled her against him. 

When their lips met again there was a mutual urgency that surged through their kiss. Hot mouths crashing together with the acceptance that they both desperately wanted and needed each other. When Lise tugged at his top he happily lifted his arms and let her strip him, enjoying the look dancing on her face as her fingertips traced across his collar bone and down the length of his sternum before following the path with her lips. His senses so overwhelmingly distracted by her nibbling kisses along the goose-bumped skin of his chest that he barely noticed her fingers nimbly unbuckling his belt and jeans until the sensation of her palming his erection through his boxers made him yelp with shock and pleasure. The teasing giggles that radiated from Lise at his reaction only heightening his desire to buck into her as her fingers released him from the cotton and encircled his throbbing arousal. 

“Lise!” He was gasping now whilst her fingers ran along his length, teasing the sensitive skin of the tip with swirling strokes. 

“I… you… you need to stop Lise it feels too good. This hasn’t happened to me in a long time.” 

She wasn’t stopping though and he couldn’t find a way to make his body do anything to interrupt her, his vision blurring with ecstasy as he leant back to steady himself against the wall. 

The look of unconcealed bliss on his face only spurned Lise on, sliding down his body to kneel in front of him, replacing her fingers with her hot wet mouth. His breathing was becoming more and more erratic as his hands reached out to her shoulders gripping her tightly to slow her motion and holding her still so that her warm breath was the only thing touching him. 

“I’m not sure you know what you’re doing to me Lise. I’m not a young man anymore and this… you… it’s… I’m going to embarrass myself before we even begin.”

“John!” Lise was almost as breathless as him when she spoke- a hint of frustration, in her thick French accent, at his self-criticism. 

“I don’t think you know what you are doing to me either. I love how much you want me and I very much want to make you come… if you don’t keep interrupting me.” A teasing smile lit up her face that made him go weak at the knees, her clear desire very visible in those big brown eyes. 

“We have all night John… all of our lives for you to repay the favour.”

His mouth was now too dry to even comprehend a response so he let himself get lost in the feeling of her hot tongue sliding back along his length whilst he tried to restrain his body from bucking roughly into her the way he wanted. Her fingers sliding round to dig into the skin of his ass as she enveloped more of him with her mouth, speeding up her movements until he could barely breathe, so close to losing control. 

“Lise.” His shaky voice trying to warn her of what she already knew as she listened to his ragged panting as he arched his back reflexively, spasming in ecstasy whilst she held him against her, preventing his feeble attempts to respectfully pull away, so that he came within her in a pulsing hot surge as he gasped her name again. 

*****

By the time they finally got into bed John was keen to ensure Lise was as satisfied by the evening as he so clearly was. Trailing hot kisses along her now damp neck, he buried his head in the soft curls of her hair whilst his rough fingers tenderly traced a path down her body, skimming deliberately over an erect nipple and enjoying the sound of her whimpers when he found his target at the apex of her already very wet folds. He was so spent from Lise’s recent attentions that the awareness of his hardening erection, as a direct result of the noises she was making against his ear and the feel of her arousal against his fingers as they slid easily into her, took him by surprise. 

The feel of his hardness pressing against her thigh took Lise by surprise too. A very pleasing surprise. 

“Déjà prêt?! Not such an old man yet John Cardinal.”

“Fuck Lise…This is all you.”

That was the last thing either said as she eased him over her body to replace his skilled fingers with what she wanted to feel even more. Even though she was more than ready for him, his size was more than she had experienced before and it took her a while to accommodate all of him in her tight depths. John sensitively aware of her slight anxiety kissed her deeply, taking his time so as not to hurt her as they both got used to this wonderful new sensation. Now, very relieved by his earlier release, he had a lot more control of his own desire and could focus all of his attentions on his partners’ pleasure. Holding his weight on his forearms he let his lips devour her mouth, teasing and tasting her with his tongue whilst her nails dug roughly into the flesh of his back. Her fingers sliding lower to the skin of his ass, digging in and urging him to speed up until she could no longer concentrate on his kisses, gasping instead into his open mouth as she came hard, the spasming contractions of her walls bringing him to his second orgasm in under an hour. 

It didn’t take John long to fall asleep, his arms wrapped protectively around Lise as she watched the creases leave his face and his breathing slow to a comforting rhythm. “Bonne nuit mon amour. Thank you for letting me in.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Of course John has to be a smokin' hot stud :p it is fanfic isn't it 😂🔥

**Author's Note:**

> This first is in 2 parts - and yes of course there will be more fluff and Smut to come - sorry this posting is a bit of a tease. Forgive me..


End file.
